


Tales of the Runes

by TheSeerVölva (APHMamaBear)



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Folklore, Mythology - Freeform, Norse Mythology - Freeform, Odin - Freeform, Other, Well of Urd, Yggdrasil - Freeform, norse mythology & folklore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-14 19:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3422717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/APHMamaBear/pseuds/TheSeerV%C3%B6lva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Athelstan still continues to live with Lagertha and Ragnar, he begins to become far more curious of their beliefs than his own. Asking stories and questions to Lagertha of tales of the symbols that hold such power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tales of the Runes

"Tell me the tale of the rivers flowing water and that of trees that bend in the winds to guide ruins upon the waters."  
\-----  
"How did your people come to use those symbols?"  
"Which..."  
"um." Athelstan thought for a moment, "I believe I heard Ragnar call them by runes?"  
"Ahh." Lagertha nodded once and gestured him to sit.  
The wind hit with snow against the wood, home creaking at its pressures.  
"The tale of how Odin found the ruins." Lagertha's lips curled at the curiosity that bestowed itself onto the young christian within her home. She was taken by him, not in a manner as she was with her husband, but, to her, he seemed but a child in comparison. "Are you so fond of that I tell of these tales? any mother could... every child knows these."  
He brushed his hand along the hair of his chin, "well... I am not from your homeland..." He kept his breath even as he thought his words through, translating them in his head as if leafing through various books to find the quote, "I come from another, so I do not believe I recognize these stories. though I have traveled, I have only learned of your language and not your cultures."  
"Cultures?" She questioned smiling slyly as if she were to believe they wee no different, as if they're knowledge of truer gods were the believe of the many.  
"W-well." Athelstan stopped in his moments of thought, "well... from where i have traveled before my capture I had explored further and around into the mainland. there are many that were like you but quiet far off in difference."  
She nodded and that was the end of their cultural talk.  
"So..." Athelstan started again, "... Odin and the runes?"  
"you really wish to know?" Lagthera's eyes trailed over the features of his face.  
"Yes."  
"You shall not call me false."  
"I not sure if it ever could be."  
She blinked at the answer, the priest yes had been in their stead for a while but the form of questioning upon his own was... odd.  
"very well..." Her smile curled back onto her face, "I shall tell."  
She placed her self in the center seat across from Athelstan. Hands outstretched she felt the warmth of the fire upon her hands and breathed in the warm air before speaking.  
"Our all father, Odin, a God of great wisdom and knowledge knew to obtain great intelligence one must forever learn and seek it. in this, to watch over us all and know of the worlds he had given one of his eyes to gain such knowledge." She started, tapping below her left eye as she spoke, "this amongst the many gave way towards his search."  
She grabbed another log by her side and tossed it into the fire, it was colder than it should have been during the early start of winter.  
"Odin had went down to the Well of Urd to hang himself by the foot at the branches of the great tree Yggdrasil..."  
"What is um.. Yggdrasil?" Athelstan asked her, rubbing his hands together by the fire, watching the flames dance like that of the women in the town he had seen before.  
"A great tree that connects the worlds of Asgard," She pointed up, "Jutenheim... Midgard..." She patted at the ground below her feet, "and each of the other world that are connected to it such as Alfheim..."  
"how many worlds are there truly? connected to Yggdrasil that is..."  
"nine... The Bifrost connect them all, its how the gods travel... now.." She perked a brow at him, tightening her lips as a signal for him to remain quiet, if he truly wished to actually hear the story.  
"Odin, at the Well of Urd, brought himself up on the branches of Yggdrasil to hang upside down over the waters. there he gathered himself into the world around him, gazing deeply into the waters." She breathed in with a smile curling onto her lips as she continued, "this well, is not like others which you see in our lands, on Midgard. The Well of Urd holds greater powers than man can imagine themselves or others to have."  
"Why did Odin hang himself?" Athelstan muttered to himself quietly, but loud enough that Lagertha heard him.  
"runes appear to those in the well if they are worthy of such fearful insights and abilities. as he hung himself from the tree, Odin speared himself before looking into the waters below." Wind brushed against the side of the door making it bounce and clatter against the home, Lagertha stood to put a board in front of it.  
"Did he see the Runes?"  
"you act like a child wanting more..." Lagertha stated with a small laugh, "Yes he did. After nine days and nine nights, no aid allowed to him from the other gods, not even the tiniest sip of water, he saw them after continuous calling."  
Athelstan smiled widely as if a child hearing the triumphs of a far off raid or the tales of Thor. his lips curled to his pink cheeks, skin reddened from the cold.  
"He spoke of it after.." She recited, "Then I was fertilized and became wise; truly grew and thrived. From a word to a word I was led to a word, From a work to a work I was led to a work."  
She tapped at the wood on the outer ridge of the fire. "Now, to bed... you have work to do."  
Brushing himself off Athelstan made his way to his living space within the home, Lagertha's gaze following his movements.  
She wondered if he now was starting to believe in which gods were right...


End file.
